Turning Point
by Leap the Skip
Summary: One turned the other. This is the breaking point. Or the mending point. Satoshi and Krad, vampire AU. Chapter 6 is up.
1. Disclaimer

Gigantic Apology—or Disclaimer, if you prefer

A few words.

This story is very unconventional for me. It has bad words (although not too bad), it has an AU, it has OOCness of the "I just borrowed the characters' names" variety, it has unnecessary blood, and it has _vampires. _Vampires, for crying out loud. With all due respect to those who write vampire fic, I don't do it. It's not me. In fact, all of the above-mentioned things are taboo for me. So if you hate any of these things, or came here for a real DNAngel fic, I get that. I usually hate "Krad is a vampire he bites Satoshi" fics, and there are a surprising number out there. I almost never read AU anyhow. And this story is, in my opinion, badly written and sloppily organized, and yet I have no inclination to edit it.

So I wasn't going to post this, and the main characters were not going to be Krad and Satoshi. But I guess they've gotten into my brain, because in a strange, very disconnected and OOC way, they were. And the silly drabble became a story. With chapters. That's another thing I don't do. Chapters.

And the story became more than a silly drabble, although how much more I don't know.

So here.


	2. Father and Son?

He rolled up his sleeve and pushed the boy's head gently in the direction of his wrist.

"Drink," he said, and the mesmerized fledgling obeyed, sinking his teeth into the warm flesh and drinking from the current that ran beneath it. Krad smiled at his glazed expression. "I was out hunting all night for you." Satoshi did not look up. He was too busy feeding, greedily lapping up the drops that his fangs drew from his master's veins. His sire winced as he tore up flesh in his fervor.

"Look at you. Two years now and I still have to make you feed. They all say I've gone soft with you. Spoiled beyond reason, you are." He pushed his other hand against Satoshi's forehead, forcing his head back. "Stop. That's enough."

His fledgling obeyed, licking his lips rather listlessly. Krad watched him for a moment.

"All right." He adjusted his sleeve and stood up. "I release you." He turned toward the door.

Satoshi gasped as his eyes suddenly cleared. He grimaced and snorted, turning away from his sire.

"You fascinate me," Krad remarked. "Still resisting your nature after so long. It may be unprecedented."

The other closed his eyes tightly, a habitual tic bred from long months of resisting madness.

"Anyhow, I'm going for a few hours. You have full reign of the house, as usual. Cannot leave, of course. I'll check on you when I get home—although I doubt you'll notice, since the sun is about to rise…now."

Satoshi's spiteful eyes suddenly lost their focus as he sighed and slumped against the wall. His master carefully moved him and tucked him in.

"Silly little fledgling." He took his coat and left for the morning.

The door closed with a cheerful bang, if such a thing were possible. Krad was all but whistling as he took off his coat and handed it to the hired help.

"That went swimmingly," he said.

"Time to feed the dog, then?" the butler remarked dryly.

"More of a cat, really," Krad replied cheerfully, hanging up his hat. "I haven't been able to teach him a trick yet."

"With all due respect, sir," the other man said seriously, "I do worry about your indulgence with that one, sir. People do talk."

Krad sighed. "I know. It's probably vain of me to allow myself this one indulgence. But," he continued resolutely, pausing at the top of the staircase with a dramatic gesture, "I will anyway. He is my star pupil, and I'm afraid he will be spoiled no matter what I do." He made a tragic pose and turned the corner. "_Thank you for the warning!_" he yelled unnecessarily across the house.

The butler rolled his eyes. "Very funny sir. I do hope they'll see it that way too."

He went to adjust the pictures on the mantelpiece. "The boy certainly doesn't."

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Notes: I think Krad could have been like this if he hadn't had the past he did. He was universally hated and used from birth, and as far as we know he's never been loved. He's more like Dark than either of them like to admit, and Dark deals with his problems by being flippant. This silly alternate Krad has his own issues, though. He is also a terrible parent by vampire standards because he never forces his fledgling into anything. Spoiling him rotten like that can be taken as a sign of weakness by other vampires, which is what the butler was referring to.


	3. Indecision

Thanks for the reviews, especially Little Miss Marina. I'm glad to know that you liked this, as I'm still not sure what to think of it. (It's so OOC...) Anyway, new chapter already!

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He looked up as Krad entered the room, and his master wondered if he didn't look as though he missed him a little. Satoshi was sitting on the edge of his bed, as he had been the night before. Krad smiled and came to sit beside him. Satoshi looked at his fond expression and then at his own hands, folded in his lap. Krad thought he looked rather insecure.

"Krad."

"Yes, little bluebird?"

"What you feed me…It is all human blood, right?"

Krad considered this. "Well, mostly. I know you don't like that, Satoshi, but that is what keeps you alive. I hunt some dogs, though, and deer, although they're hard to find around here."

"No cats?"

Krad tilted his head. "Cats? No."

"I like cats."

Krad laughed. "To eat? No, no, I do too. As pets, I mean. Although you can hardly call that a pet, can you? They never do what they're told." He ruffled Satoshi's hair, and his fledgling turned his face away.

"Are you hungry?" Krad asked.

"No."

"You're like a cat that way, yourself. Picky eater."

Satoshi blew air out his nostrils. "You think you're funny." Krad's smiled faded. "But really, you're just insane. And very desperate."

Krad looked over the half-profile of his child. "And have you accepted your fate, then? You're no longer desperate?"

Satoshi lowered his head. "At least I'm not crazy."

"Well." said Krad. "That kind of talk never helped anyone. And you may say you're not hungry, but I can sense your feelings, you know. You're trying not to drool."

"Leave me alone," Satoshi said listlessly, in a voice that knew that would never happen.

"Not until you're able to provide for yourself," said Krad.

Satoshi didn't answer.

"Well, anyhow." said Krad, shrugging. "Open up."

Satoshi didn't move, but the older vampire felt his aura change with the strength of the command. He rolled back his sleeve and ordered the hungry little one to feed. Satoshi turned with inhuman grace and mechanically obeyed. He watched the drops fly from Satoshi's tongue as he worked the little wound he made with his white teeth. Freed from his human inhibitions, the fledgling had a grace of movement like a little bird, quick, precise and keen.

When the sense of hunger in the child's mind abated and he was only feeding for the pure pleasure of it, Krad stopped him like usual and turned him loose. Satoshi wiped the blood off his lips with his sleeve and turned away.

"Well, that's that." Krad stood and patted him on the head. "If you want to speak to me, I'll be in the library. I know you like it there, so if you want to interrupt my studies, feel free."

He went to the door, brushing dried flecks of blood off his hands.

"Wait."

Krad paused in the doorway, one hand on the lintel.

"Why are you waiting on me like this? It's been two years and all you've done is force me to drink your blood. Do you think I'll suddenly decide I like being a vampire? Or do you just think it's funny to watch me hate myself?"

Krad half turned his head. "Maybe it's because I want you to have the chance I never had. To make peace with who you are and what you need to do. I never got to make the most important decisions."

"Maybe I never will."

"Maybe," said Krad, in a quiet voice, with lowered head. "But I can wait. And if I see you've really made your decision, then I'll let you go. If you want."

He left and closed the door behind him. Satoshi's eyes wandered to his own hands again.

"I've already made my decision," he whispered quietly, and he wished he felt as certain as he sounded.

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Satoshi is much more open and vulnerable here. Again, due to lack of a bad past. (Well, until two years ago.) Also, I firmly believe that Krad loves cats. And Satoshi does too. Satoshi is very cat-like. He and Krad love hunting Mousy's.


	4. Resolution

Thanks for the reviews! Oh, and Phantom Yuki, as far as length goes, I'm afraid this one won't meet your expectations. I think I'm better suited to drabbles than long chapters. ; Looks like the next one will be a little longer though.

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He came home late, just as he'd told the boy he would. So of course he didn't see it. And Krad had a scarf over his face coming home, which would explain the smell. But how he hadn't _sensed _anything was beyond the older vampire.

Before he even reached for the front door he knew Satoshi wasn't there. The mansion looked the same, and the old butler had doubtlessly been keeping watch, but his presence simply was not in the building.

He wished he was more surprised. Satoshi hadn't tried to run away in half a year now, and he had seemed quite civil, if not entirely content, for longer. But he wouldn't drink without being forced into it, and he spent all his time in his room and in the library.

He had been waiting. Krad had hoped he had grown out of it, but he had been waiting, and after he had been allowed to roam the house without supervision for a few months, he had seized his chance.

It would be fine. He had chased the boy down before.

But the hunt proved more difficult than he had imagined. The night was nearly halfway through before he picked up any trace of the boy's scent, and then it stopped abruptly by a greyhound station. Krad drew in a sharp breath and whooshed it out.

"You took the _bus_?"

The vampire was reduced to looking up bus routes that ended before nightfall.

He had to stop in late morning to wait out the strong sun until late afternoon. Even with his scarf, hat and sunglasses, (and a resistance built by years) a vampire had his limits. At least Satoshi couldn't have gotten much farther. He was young and still collapsed each day at the first light of dawn, and nothing could wake him up. Krad had scented him again in the early morning, and the smell gave him a very faint whiff of the boy's well-being, which allayed his fears of early death for the child. Even so, his son could be in danger. And he was probably hungry, too. Krad moved on as soon as he could.

Satoshi had taken a fair deal of money from the mansion.

He had taken at least three buses, and Krad suspected that the mysterious disappearance of his scent late in the night was due to a taxi.

But Krad had plenty of money. After all, he didn't have many uses for it. What worried him was the steady dimming of the scent, and the increasing faintness of the aura that accompanied it. This didn't mean he was farther away; the trail was fresher than ever. What it meant was that Satoshi was hungry and weak, and he was slowing down.

Krad picked up the pace.

An hour before dawn the seriousness of the situation finally cracked his confidence. He was heading to an abandoned house scheduled for demolition to spend the morning, when a sharp pain rang through his heart. This was followed by an incredible stabbing sensation, threaded through with Satoshi's weak aura.

"No." His mind raced wildly, and he looked about him, as though some answer to the terrible question could be found in his surroundings. He willed his heart to calm so he could search for Satoshi's aura.

Nothing.

Nothing.

There—dull and throbbing, but tangible. And close enough to follow on foot, by the feel of it. But the sun—

He looked up. Dawn was coming already—had panic thrown him off his senses for that long? Satoshi was probably six hours away on foot, from the looks of it. He had gone off in the direction of the woods, and this house was at the edge of town. There was nowhere else to stay in sight.

Krad realized he would burn to death if he went now. What to do? Dead, he couldn't help the boy, but there was only a slim chance that Satoshi had found shelter that would shield him from the sun when it was high. And the thought of the pain he had felt through their blood link made his heart race once more.

But he couldn't help him at all if he was dead. That made everything else a moot point. He turned back to the house.

Better late than never, but he feared with all his heart that never might come anyhow.


	5. Vampire

Just a warning—this is by far the most graphic chapter in this story, as it contains notable violence. But they are vampires, I'm afraid.

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He found him in the woods. He was lying on his side, pale against the wet earth. Asleep.

"Where did you sleep, Satoshi? Where did you spend your days?"

Three days without him. Three days, quite possibly, without blood. Krad lifted him, hoisting him over his shoulder. The small body was light, as he knew it would be. A smear of wetness came off his clothes and stained Krad's hand. Blood? Krad looked at it. Had he fed? He licked it. No, this was Satoshi's blood. Then he had been wounded. The fear he had sensed the day before…

He checked the boy over for wounds. Nothing visible—no, idiot, here, a huge gash across his stomach. Rough, like something had ripped through him. There was a spot that was deeper, and Krad smelled…deer? Had Satoshi tried to hunt a stag? The wound was deep and still bleeding, and Satoshi's weak aura showed how much blood he had already lost. It was almost sunrise, but Satoshi needed blood now. It couldn't wait for their return home. He took off his coat and shirt, tearing the second and binding the wound as carefully as he could. Satoshi shivered slightly. Krad wrapped the coat around him and lifted him again, trying to think where they could spend the day.

He carried Satoshi swiftly to the old house he had spent the midday in. As he lay the boy down on the old floorboards, he felt the slight drowsiness that accompanied dawn for an older vampire.

"Hang it—How will I get you to feed now?" He leaned his head against the wall in frustration. "I was too slow…I'm sorry, Satoshi."

The boy twitched and moaned a little. Krad examined the wound and saw that the blood had soaked through the makeshift bindings and was pooling on the coat. He couldn't wait, he had to wake him somehow.

"Come on, child, wake up." He nudged at Satoshi's aura, unsure how hard to push. Satoshi grunted and moved his head slightly. He was still far too young to stay awake in the daytime; Krad knew he'd never managed it beyond sunrise. But now…

"Satoshi." Still kneeling, he leaned over the fledgling and placed a gentle hand on the wound. Healing it now would take most of Krad's power and his blood, and Satoshi needed as much of the latter as he could get. If he drank it, it would heal him and replenish his strength. Krad's magic could only close the wound, not replenish the blood that Satoshi would die without. But if the blood loss continued…

He leaned down closer. "Satoshi, I'm sorry. I only hope I'm making the right choice now."

He concentrated on Satoshi's aura, connecting his own power with the boy's through the tie of their shared bloodline. As his energy began to flow into the fledgling, the boy's aura rippled slightly with recognition. The faint light of Satoshi's mind brightened ever so slightly. Krad opened his eyes to see that Satoshi had opened his own and was staring at him, his blue eyes dark with pain. His voice was more of a breath than a word.

"Krad?"

The weakness of his whisper shot a different pain through his sire, sliding like an invisible knife into his heart. Satoshi looked so close to death, as close as he had when he had last been human. His eyes were weak, faint and nearly lifeless.

"Satoshi."

"Krad, I'm…sorry…"

"Don't worry about it. I need you to drink now, Satoshi, and don't try to resist, alright?"

Satoshi watched the proffered arm with dazed eyes. Krad was surprised when he didn't complain or refuse the meal, but instead opened his mouth weakly, fangs elongating for the bite. He trembled as he sank into the flesh, and Krad leaned down further to allow him better access to the veins. Satoshi nursed the vessels slowly at first, so weakly that Krad hardly felt the strength flowing out of him. Soon, though, the heat of life in the food awakened his instincts, and his body recognized its desperate need for sustenance.

Then the boy attacked the wrist with furor proper to a starving vampire, eyes growing wild as he lost all reserve. Soon he was hissing and opening new wounds with messy, tearing bites. He seized the arm with his hand as though afraid his prey would try to escape and sucked greedily at the escaping blood, running his tongue quickly and roughly over the wet surface of the arm.

Krad watched him, his eyes narrowed with the pain of Satoshi's messy eating. Normally he would have stopped him minutes ago, but this time it wasn't enough. Satoshi's hunger still raged and needed to be filled before he could regain his strength. Krad was used to pain, although his fledgling's violent fervor alarmed him. He had never fed without being magically forced to, and now, watching him experience a feeding fully for the first time, Krad realized that Satoshi had almost no control, if any. The blood loss only compounded the problem. His wound had already healed over, but-

Krad's thoughts were interrupted when the boy stopped gnawing on his arm. He looked down and saw Satoshi's eyes, glowing with inhuman light, staring straight into his own. He had just a moment to register the complete lack of recognition in those eyes before he blocked the clumsy pounce. Teeth aimed for his throat sank into his hand and Satoshi growled as Krad grabbed his arms and easily pulled them together behind the boy's back, pushing Satoshi down into his lap in a swift motion. Satoshi hissed and twisted, enraged at his denied meal.

This was bad, but it couldn't be avoided. Even with only his instincts to keep him in check, Satoshi should have recognized his sire and restrained his feeding to the offered arm, but any feelings of subservience for the older vampire were now overridden by his raging blood hunger. Satoshi didn't even know himself any longer.

"I miscalculated again," Krad said softly, as he offered the struggling fledgling his other hand. "I'm sorry." He was beginning to feel slightly anemic. Satoshi growled and bit into the wrist, stabbing angrily through the unmarked skin. Krad winced again but let his child distract himself with the new blood. Dizziness began to make his vision blur. He sensed for Satoshi's aura and found that it was more robust than ever. Pulling back his hand, he pushed Satoshi's head down and away from him. The young vampire grunted in animalistic frustration. Krad leaned to speak softly into his ear.

"That's enough. Sleep now, little one."

The Satoshi that was not Satoshi anymore huffed and shook. His wild eyes widened before rolling back in his head. His sire caught him and wrapped the coat back around him. Then he laid him back down and watched him sleep until sunset came.

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This chapter is insane. I apologize. I always put Satoshi in situations where he has no control, because control is so important to him. But this is out of line. And Krad is a vampire, but how can he have so much blood in him? Have you ever noticed how much vampires seem to bleed in stories and things? They're like the Black Knight from Monty Python, only their limbs grow back. (Heh. I'm definitely going to sleep now.)


	6. Son

After apologizing again upon awakening, Satoshi didn't speak to him for the next week. He stayed in his room and didn't look at Krad when he came to feed him. On the fourth day since their return Krad heard him retching in the bathroom, and the next day was the same. He was purging every meal that was given to him. Krad confronted him on the sixth day, but he still wouldn't speak. When he threw up afterwards, Krad locked the door to his room. The next day there was vomit all over the carpet, and Satoshi looked very, very pale. Krad lost his temper, then, and after feeding him once more in the same day, he did not reverse the command state. Satoshi stayed listless and obedient. His sire swallowed his sentiments and stayed with him through the day, listening to the boy's even breathing. He knew that Satoshi would hate him even more for controlling him, but the child was killing himself. He determined to talk to him as soon as he had enough blood in him to get up on his own. His bulimia had made him almost as weak as he had been in the woods.

After two days of mental slavery, Satoshi was released from obedience. He blinked a little at first, his eyes unfocused, still in a slight stupor. Then the daze passed and he turned to look at his captor.

"You monster."

Krad was surprised at how much the words hurt. The first six months of Satoshi's new life, curses and screams were all Krad had gotten. He still had never expressed affection or positive sentiments of any kind, but Krad had at last gotten the feeling that he wasn't exactly _hated_ anymore. The words opened the old wound and it stung more than he was prepared for.

"You made me like this." He had said that before, too, but this time he spoke with a conviction that came from experience. His voice said, "_I know now what you've brought me into, and I hate you even more for having that knowledge._"

"You couldn't bear it alone, could you? Monsters want to make more monsters, and now you've gotten _me_ and I—" He was almost crying. Krad didn't move. "I…" The tears that streaked his cheeks were red with blood. He wiped them away and stared helplessly at the smears they made on his fingers. "I'm so much worse than human."

Krad hadn't seen him cry in over a year. Unable to bear it any longer, he moved to the boy and put his arms around him. Satoshi didn't shove him away, but he didn't react either.

"If you want to help me so much, why won't you kill me? Or let me die." The tears were striping his face with red, staining his eyes with the tinge of blood. "That's all I've wanted from the start."

Krad's instincts as a sire were telling him the boy was a danger to himself, that he needed to be subdued, controlled. The fiercely protective feelings that were born into a sire when he made a fledgling were always very strong, and Krad knew he gave into them more often and more completely than the vast majority of his kind. But Krad was also very accustomed to ignoring powerful instincts, and he knew that Satoshi would be even worse off if Krad used his powers as his sire to control him again. So he did nothing, only listened.

"When I apologized, it wasn't for leaving. I was sorry that I _lied_ to you to do it. But it doesn't matter anyway. No matter what I say, it doesn't matter to you. I'm just your pet."

"My son," Krad murmured, and he felt the boy tense in his arms. He knew the feelings between sire and fledgling were reciprocal, to some degree, and he also knew that Satoshi was uncomfortable with the unwilling subservience he felt to the older vampire. He didn't want to feel like a child, but the dependence and affection—even trust—were there from the moment he was turned. After all, Krad had brought him back into the world.

They sat in silence for a while. Satoshi began to scrape the dried tear tracks from his cheeks.

"You're not my father." He said it flatly, quietly. Krad blinked with the sting of emotional pain.

"I know."

"My father is dead. So is everyone I knew. So am I."

"No, Satoshi, you're not—"

"I'm dying, then, and you won't let me stop. You won't let me finish dying, Krad."

Krad hugged him tightly, he couldn't help it. "No, no, no, little one, no, I don't want you to die. You're _alive_, just different. I made you that way to save you—"

"I've heard it before, Krad!" Satoshi's voice rose suddenly; he was yelling now. "You couldn't ask me if I wanted this, but if you could and I said no, you would have let me die." He had ripped himself from Krad's arms, was repeating Krad's words in a harsh, tearful tone.

"Damn it, Krad. You know, at first I thought you were lying. I didn't believe anyone could be that stupid. But now, well, I don't know. Maybe you really do think that someone out there might have answered yes. But Krad, I know damn well that no one in this world with a soul would have agreed to become this…monster, even if the alternative was death. I would have taken years of torture instead of living like this, with the knowledge that every day I live means more lives taken. Every day I spend in misery in this worthless life is paid for with the blood—the _literal living blood_—of a happy, precious, wonderful human being who sees the sunrise every day and thinks _nothing of it. Do you understand that misery_? No. You lied to me. You were never human. No matter how much you smile, no matter how kind and self-sacrificing you are to me, you'll never be more than a monster. Because you may think _I'm_ great, but every other person on this earth is dirt in your eyes. You can pity me, pet me all you want but the fact is. You. Are. A. Murderer. They're nothing better than animals to you, but a million of you isn't worth one of them. And that's why, no matter how long you keep me here, no matter how _patient _you are, I will never submit willingly. I will never kill, and I will never drink your foul blood without you forcing me into it like you have every day for the last two years. If it takes centuries I will wait it out. And then I will kill myself, because the only good we can do in this world is to cleanse it of our evil."

A deafening silence filled the room in the wake of Satoshi's tirade. His eyes continued to glow so bright that it hurt to look at them. Krad stared into those eyes, his mouth open slightly. He suddenly felt very tired.

Krad opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing.

Satoshi's fists were red from clenching.

Satoshi turned away.

Satoshi left the room.

Satoshi left the mansion.

Satoshi left his sire and his safety and went out into the young night to wait to die.

Again.


	7. Human

Krad blinked.

This wasn't his fault.

Was it?

He had tried to raise him well, had been kinder and more attentive than any vampire had any right to be. He had saved his life several times.

But that wasn't what he wanted.

_That's what I've wanted from the start._

But he didn't know that! He didn't know that he would have chosen death. He had made the best decision he could at the time. And now he was doing the best he could with what he was given. He only killed when he had to. After all, it wasn't his fault he'd become like this.

Satoshi's voice rang in his mind. _Don't give me the 'I'm a good vampire' act. This isn't a dime store novel and a murderer is a murderer. You can lie to yourself all you want, but at the end of the day you're a cold-blooded killer. Maybe you've forgotten that, but I haven't._

But he wasn't—a man had to live, and he…he had just accepted what he was…That was healthy…He knew it was wrong, but he had accepted that a long time ago.

_You were never human._ What had he been like as a fledgling? It had been a long time ago, but he had some memories—he had been there once, hadn't he?

What had he been like as a human?

The question was like cold water down his neck. He swallowed at the chill shock of it.

He couldn't remember.

He remembered remembering it, remembered longing for it, remember accepting the loss. He had put those times behind him, accepted that they couldn't be again, no point crying over spilled milk, and he…He…Somewhere in the centuries he had lost it. He had forgotten. Forgotten what it was to be human.

He had, on a whim, saved a boy from a burnt down cabin and taken him in as a pet. That was the cold truth. He would never say that to the boy now, but that was the truth. And what he said to him now didn't matter. He hadn't known then that biting the dying child would make him protect him with the fierce, undying protectiveness of a parent for a child. He hadn't known that the bond would force him to care about him, to value him. He couldn't have guessed that that instinctual protectiveness would grow into a real love, the kind that mothers had for their children, the kind that even allowed them to let their children go when the time came. He had survived by being flippant.

Satoshi was wrong, he hadn't thought of them as dirt.

He hadn't thought about them at all.


	8. Father

The parental urges still rang though his head. _You can still go get him, take him back. You can convince him. Or control him. Or even wipe away his bad memories. He's young, magic like that will work on him. You can wipe the slate clean and start over._

And then he'll never remember what it is to be human.

He made sure to give the hired help notice.

The air was cold outside, and he took a moment before closing the door behind him. He was somehow more aware than ever of the keenness of his senses. The darkness of the sky made the moon seem more bright. The night wind made the leaves whisper with a secret sound. He breathed in the smell of the night, and the smell of his son. He followed that smell to the source.

Satoshi had gone a long way in a few hours. The going was slow because of the tracking, and Krad would have lost the scent if not for his more preternatural senses of the boy who shared his blood. His trail was winding, but mainly very clear. Satoshi did not know how to lose a pursuer on such short notice, especially one who knew him so well. Or had thought he did.

After crossing a stream in a seemingly last-minute attempt to throw off any followers, Satoshi had gone uphill. Not a very big hill at all. Just a little rise among the trees, just high enough at the top to be above most of them. And at the top, in the little clearing between two tall pines, looking to the east, was Satoshi.

His back was to Krad as he approached, but Krad knew the boy could hear him. He was intentionally loud, to let him know he was coming. To let him run away.

But Satoshi didn't run, he didn't even turn around. His shoulders were squared in the same defiance Krad had seen in him when he left. He lifted his head slightly when Krad reached the point behind his shoulder.

"If you take me back I will run away again."

He was very resolute. This was a resolve he hadn't had the last time he ran. It was a decision for death. But resolve could melt with centuries, and no matter what his convictions, a fourteen year-old boy could not imagine what a hundred years could do to a person.

"Again and again," said the older vampire softly. "And after that? And that? And what if decades pass by and you don't recognize the people, and then centuries go past and you don't recognize the cities? What if I keep you by my side until nations fall, and people who aren't your people make this country theirs?

What if you forget?"

"I'll keep running."

He stood with his back to his sire, his pale hair sharp against the brightening sky.

Krad watched him until the coming dawn turned the clouds the color of that hair. They would be white in the morning.

"I didn't come to take you back, Satoshi."

Satoshi didn't answer. But he turned and looked at Krad for the first time.

Krad came to stand next to him.

"If you want to watch me die, to get forgiveness in the act of forbearing, that's not enough."

Krad nodded.

"Redemption doesn't come cheap, Krad."

"I know."

The sky cast light upon them now, not sunlight yet, but the harbinger of dawn, light reflected and refracted through the clouds.

"I came to watch the sunrise with you."

He didn't say anything more, and Satoshi didn't answer. Krad stood by him, silent with his pain. A different pain now.

And the light of the sun just beyond the horizon made the clouds begin to turn to rose.

He reached out a hand to touch that hair, knowing that he shouldn't. And his fledgling turned to look at him before his hand could come to rest. A new look.

And in his eyes he saw a name he never deserved, the one name he _hadn't _taken in all his long years, the years that very clearly now were too many.

They watched the sun rise.

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Author's Note:

And that is the Ending Point.

Eheheh. Don't hurt me.

I didn't update this story for a long time, because life went a different direction, as it were, from fanfiction. But I also didn't update it because the end is not a happy one.

I didn't know where the story would go, initially, but it led here, because I knew it had to end in redemption. And that is a difficult thing if one considers what a vampire, especially the sort that has to kill to survive, is supposed to be.

Thank you for all the reviews, and to those who kept reading and reviewing it long after it seemed dead! I am really grateful! You were very encouraging, and you showed me that my writing-or at least this story-did have worth. And that is more than I could have hoped for.


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